Bottlebrush Hanging Parrot Gyms, the next evolution of my Parrot Play Gym concept.

To see pics of clients birds enjoying their Bottlebrush Hanging Gyms, click here.

For those of you familiar with my Bottlebrush Parrot Play Gyms, you understand that basically, they are made to provide your parrot with a favorite place. Well, these Hanging Play Gyms are the next evolution, I hope you'll agree.

The branch configuration is very similar to those on my Play Gyms, basically, a two story house with a spiral staircase. However, a hanging gym provides some advantages over a stationary gym.

Why will your parrot GO NUTS on a Bottlebrush Hanging Gym? Consider this. Your bird is a domestically hand fed baby. Taken from their stationary nesting box, they're put into some kind of container, then eventually a cage. Everything is stationary. At first, when introduced to a Bottlebrush Hanging Gym, they're nervous or afraid. They have never experienced perches that move. However, natural instinct quickly takes over, and for the first time in their lives, they experience the kind of freedom a bird experiences living in a tree. There has always been something right below where their standing, a tray, grate, etc. Now, there is total freedom. Your bird can swing, and be FREE AS A BIRD.

Now, understand this. The reason your bird will love a BOTTLEBRUSH Hanging gym is just that, BOTTLEBRUSH. In order to fall safe and secure on a Hanging Gym, they have to feel comfortable STANDING on a hanging gym. As with my Play Gyms, if I took the exact same design, and substituted some other perch material, PVC, Manzanita, Wooden Dowels, etc, your bird wouldn't feel sure footed enough to really enjoy the experience. Bottlebrush is as important here as in my Play Gyms.

Will your bird like a Bottlebrush Hanging Gym. I have lots of clients with Hanging Gyms and Play Gyms. They report that their birds PREFER the hanging gyms over their Play Gyms. The total freedom a Bottlebrush Hanging Gym provides brings out a side of your bird you have likely never seen. I have reports of parrots literally swinging them so high, they almost hit the ceilings. Sounds like fun to me.

Want to take it a step further? There are lots of Cage Free members who use my Hanging Gyms as a roost. That's right. Their birds have no cages. They spend their days on one of my gyms, or Hanging Gym. At bedtime, their hanging gym is unfolded, hung up, and their birds are put to roost. Or, if their birds spend their days on my Hanging Gyms, when it's time to roost, the Hanging gym is hung in a different spot. My Hanging Gyms are unique, and your Bird will hove one. Here are some other standard features.

Completely portable. These gyms are easily moved from room to room. Decide where you might like to place your hanging gym, Upstairs, downstairs, basement, outside, etc, and place ceiling hangers like the one pictured. Important tip. I highly recommend you install these hooks in the beams in your ceiling. You certainly wouldn't want it to fall. This is easily done using a Stud Finder like the one pictured.

Great for vacations, traveling, etc. These Hanging Gyms are designed to fold up for easy transport and can be set up in a flash. The Swing Part itself simply folds up, like pictured. To set it up, unfold the swing assemble and it's ready for use.

Perhaps the most unique feature of my Hanging Play Gyms are the built in Swing Hanger at the top. This hanger is permanently attached to the top of the Hanging Gym as pictured. Here's why.

First, without a Gym hanger, your parrot will climb to the top of the swing part, up the chain or whatever is used to attach it to the ceiling, and, either chew your ceiling, or, try to get him/her down.

If you use a standard Gym hanger, when you move the Gym, the hanger must be removed using a step stool, or left there, not real attractive. By having it attached, you can move your Hanging Gym from room to room easily, and without a step stool.

As you know, your parrot loves to be up high, the higher the better, it's the nature of the beast. However, you also know that when your parrot is up high, try getting them down. Here, you can both have what you want. You can allow your parrot to be up high, how high is up to you. This keeps the gym away from dogs, and young children. However, when you want to get him down, simply take the whole Hanging Gym down, and then your bird is easily removed. Over time, once your parrot realizes that when you tell him to COME HERE, and he doesn't, you will take the gym down and get him. Your parrot will learn this lesson quickly, and learn to come down on his own.

These Hanging Bottlebrush Play Gyms are extremely durable and attractive. They will provide your parrot with lots of great Bottlebrush to chew and Gnaw on, and lots of Screw Eyes for hanging toys, ropes, etc.

What about droppings and mess. The branches are configured on my Hanging Play Gyms in a staggered manner that allows about 95% of droppings to drop clear of lower branches. Because there is no lower tray, your bird has no access to these droppings, dropped food, etc. However, what do you do about the mess below the Hanging gym? Try this solution.

Hanging Gym Tip. One of the considerations when using a Hanging Play Gym or swing, is what to do about the droppings, and mess. As I do with everything I develop, I consider the problem, and come up with a solution. Check out this one.

Visit Home Depot, or better yet, a professional plumbing supply house. Ask them to show you Hot Water Heater Pans or Washing Machine pan. These pans are made to go under your Hot Water Heater or washing machine. In the event your water heater breaks, this pan, equipped with a drain, would drain the water instead of flooding your house. Great idea, but what does that have to do with my parrot and hanging Play Gyms.

These Pans make totally awesome pans for catching parrot debris. They are cheap, I paid $10.00 for this one, 32" in diameter. They come in all sizes, are very light, and easily cleaned. Buy two. Use one, the next morning, change it with the second one, and clean the first one and allow to dry.

Use your imagination here and you'll quickly realize this isn't that much of a problem, especially when you realize how happy and contented your bird is. Maybe a plastic kiddie pool would work for you. Or a plastic chair mat. There are tons of options here.

As an added bonus on each of my Hanging Bottlebrush Parrot Play Gyms, I include this great built in toy. It consists of a delectable, delicious slice of Bottlebrush. Your parrot can spin it, chew on it, gnaw on it, but can't remove it. This will keep him occupied for hours. When it's finally chewed up, simple remove and replace it. Includes two replacements. Additional spinners are available on my Chew stuff pages. A great toy your parrot will love. Included on all my Bottlebrush Hanging Play Gyms, sized according to the size of your parrot. Enjoy.

Shipping. Hanging Gyms are shipped partially assembled. The steps of the staircase can be assembled with a standard 1/2" socket. And, the branches of the staircase are interchangeable, so you can assemble them any way you like.

As an added bonus, my Hanging Gyms can be shipped with more then one in a box. So, if you order more than one, I will waive the shipping on additional Hanging Gyms.

As with anything else, sometimes, it's better to let a client tell you what they think. The following is a letter from Darla, in Alaska, and about her Grey, Piper. Enjoy.

Meet Piper from Alaska. His mom Darla, sent me these great pics and letter. I thought it might go well on this page. Hope you enjoy it like I did.

I brought him in the room with the gym all in place. I had hung some of his favorite toys on it in the hopes he would not freak out so bad. Just as I had feared, he completely FREAKED out!!! He flew off my hand immediately when we walked in the room. I went and got him and then just stood at the door and let him look first. He checked it out for a few minutes and then I attempted to walk in the room again. He flew again, the opposite way. There was no way he was even going to go into the room with that monster contraption hanging from the ceiling. I got him a third time and then we went into the room, this time I had my back to the monster gym, so he couldn't see it quite as well. We sat in my chair and looked at it together and talked for about 10 min. He seemed a little more relaxed at this point, so we stood up and moved toward the monster gym. Again, he attempted flight, hit the wall, and fell onto his feed bin. Now he was clearly stressed and I was starting to wonder if this was a good idea. I removed him from the room and got him settled down again. Then, I had an idea......

Okay, so now I held him as high as my arm could reach up, I stood tip-toed, stretched tall, stretched my arm way up and he was above the level of the metal/arch thing that attaches to the wood. Now he showed no signs of flight. Whew! We stood there, right next to the monster gym for awhile, until all of the blood was gone from my arm, and we talked ..... and talked.... and talked.... all the while holding him above the gym. Finally, he stepped up onto the metal part, as high as he could get, and stood next to the PVC pipe. I stayed right there for reassurance and we stayed like that for about ten minutes. Then I walked away and went and sat in my chair. (about 4 feet away) He stayed on that spot and did not move for almost an hour. Meanwhile, I filled the food and water dishes and then started to convince him to come down for a snack. No way. I had him step up on my hand and then moved him down to the top branch. He immediately climbed the metal part back up to the top. I left him there for another half hour while I finished cleaning the old perch up.

Finally, after another hour, he came down for some food, but it was funny because he did everything he could to avoid touching any part of the wood. He sat ON the food dish and ate dinner. After he was done, back up the metal bar again he went. I decided not to watch anymore and left the room for about 30 minutes. I came back in and started playing with the cat as she was sitting on my desk. Piper watched intently and then I saw him slide down the metal bar. He finally stepped on one of the branches and then stepped off, then on, then off, then looked at it with a cocked head, then stepped back on and off, on and off. This went on for quite some time.

Darla & Piper from Alaska - Thank you Wayne!

Update from Darla, 12/02/05

Dear Wayne,

I ordered two hanging gyms, which I have had now for about a month. I wanted to give you an update on how things are working out. If you remember, at first, Piper did not want anything to do with it and it took me several hours to get him to even touch it.

Now, only one month later, it's like he doesn't want to leave home without it. Not only that, but it's so easy to transport, leaving it home would be silly when we go visiting.

I could write an entire novel on all of the wonderful things about these gyms, but last time I wrote, I promised to keep the next one short.

Piper's confidence level, activity level, and the muscles he is building in his legs is incredible. He climbs all over the gym as if he has Velcro strapped on. He truly is much happier, and so am I. It's a snap to vacuum under him and I haven't had to clean not even one dropping from any of the branches. Wow, thank you! It freed up some cleaning time. When he discovered he could hang upside down and not worry about losing his grip, he decided to be an upside down parrot.

Okay, I could go on and on, but I'll try to stop here. I am attaching some photos that I took this evening. I removed almost all of the toys, because I wanted you to see that he has just as much fun without ANY toys, just playing around on the branches and climbing upside down. When the toys are all on there, it's like a day at Disney World.

I am so pleased and confident with this gym, that I went ahead and disassembled Piper's "cage" (Photo included). He was never really locked in it anyway and just hung out on the top and on the outside. I have no use for it anymore because Piper's home is on his gym and he has no desire to roam from there. (Know anyone who wants to buy a cage?)

Okay, I have stop now..... sheesh.

Oh, one more little thing..... you know that extra piece of wood on the gym - the pinwheel twirly thing that spins around? He uses that to scratch his neck.. It's really funny! (see photo) (Okay, seriously, I'm stopping here). Everyone should have a few of these gyms.

Buh-bye cage!!!

Maybe I need to rename this page Darla's Page. Gorgeous Grey.